ders the Illustrations of Dr. Kitto peculiarly acceptable. Nor is his information on the mythology and literature of India, Persia, Arabia, Egypt, or any of the other countries associated with the Bible less valuable. His careful discrimination between the Satan of Scripture and the Ahrimanes of the Persians, for example, furnishes precisely the kind of reasoning required to do battle with the insidious school of Volney, and the French sceptics, whilst it points with new and thrilling interest such texts as that referred to-"I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and CREATE EVIL.”

To these qualifications, our author adds a critical knowledge of Hebrew and its cognates, the exceedingly judicious use of which is by no means one of his least recommendations. Nothing interests us more, in all the writings of Dr. Kitto, than his perfect reliability. We follow him without any misgiving, so fully are we satisfied of his earnest and simple faith in the Scriptures, as the Word of God. He never takes headlong or unadvised liberties with our authorized version, nor "overturns it into double Dutch;" but proceeds uniformly with staid and scholarly discrimination. Of this, his chapters on "Cursing God," (Job i. 5.) and "Job's Trust," (Job xix. 25—27.) furnish apt illustration. In the last of these there is a calm manliness that is highly refreshing to us, even although we are not altogether prepared to agree with him.

Amongst the arguments furnished by Dr. Kitto, as establishing the antiquity of the book of Job, there is one which strikes us as novel and peculiarly interesting. Our author has certainly made the most of it, but considering the extreme paucity of facts bearing upon this subject, we are disposed to regard it as a valuable accession to the proofs already extant.

"References to the book of Job may be found even in Isaiah. Thus, there is an Hebrew word TZABA, which usually means "warfare;" but in the book of Job this word occurs repeatedly in the sense of a period of hard service, of calamity, or of affliction. (Ch. vii. 1; x. 17; xiv. 14.) In this very peculiar sense it also occurs in Isaiah xl. 2; and that this is not a casual coincidence, but has a designed reference to the book of Job, is clear from the fact that the very same verse of Isaiah closes with, "for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her

sins," which is a manifest allusion to the double which Job is described as having received at the end of his history. The value of this piece of evidence is very considerable, and will be appreciated by supposing the case that Spenser has a peculiar word, or uses a word in a sense peculiar to himself—both of which are cases of frequent occurrence with him. Suppose, also, that in a poet of our own day-say Wordsworth-we not only find this word, which has not in the same sense been intermediately used by any author, but such an allusion in the context as brings to mind a prominent circumstance in the very book in which the word thus occurs, we shall make no question that Wordsworth not only had Spenser in view, but that he intended to indicate the fact."

Amongst the many points of interest noticed in connection with this remarkable book, we would particularly mention, "Desolate Places," "Marvellous Things," (in which some striking peculiarities distinguishing the Bible from all other books are referred to); "The Post," "The Wild Ass," "Horns," "Written Rocks" (extracted in another part of this number); "Travellers' Tokens," "The Unicorn," "Leviathan," &c. In the chapters on "Prosperity Remembered," Dr. Kitto most felicitously avails himself of that knowledge of Eastern manners to which we have already referred. Commenting on the text, "Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me; when his candle shined upon my head;" he writes

"For 'candle' read 'lamp,' candles being even now little used in the East, and never for the purpose of burning through the night, which appears to be the source of the illustration. It is usual in the East to have a lamp burning all night in every occupied apartment. For this we never heard any reason, but that it was the custom, or that the light kept off evil spirits; but certain it is, that in most parts of Western Asia, a person would sooner dispense with something far more necessary, than with a light in his chamber during the night season. To obviate danger from fire, and that the light may be more equally diffused, the lamp is usually placed high up in a recess of the wall, or on a kind of bracket, or is even suspended from the ceiling, hence shining upon the heads of those who repose

below upon the floors or divans, Lanterns are sometimes hung up so as to throw their light upon the bed of a person of rank; and then, certainly, the lamp shines, in a very literal sense, over the head' of the person lying there. The Orientals rarely do anything by artificial light-there is no reading or working. Hence they are satisfied with very little of it, and as they sit upon the floor, the lamp usually shines upon their heads, even when not at rest."

The ninth to the thirteenth weeks inclusive, are occupied by occasional comments on the books of Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Solomon's Song, but our limits will not permit us to give any further extracts. We feel persuaded, however, in conclusion, that all who are in possession of Dr. Kitto's former series, will not rest satisfied until they have procured the succeeding volumes; and would earnestly recommend those who have not already seen them, to make so desirable an addition to their libraries.

NINETEEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY-TWO.

To the Editor of the Youths' Magazine.

DEAR SIR,―The enclosed letter was lately written to me by a cousin, who did not desire me not to show it. I have therefore sent it to you, because being myself a very matter -of-fact person, I do not quite know what to make of it. Do you think it can possibly be true? For my part, I scarcely see how it can be.

Yours very sincerely,

ORRIS.

P.S.-I do not quite agree with some of its sentiments.

"MY DEAR ORRIS,-You have, no doubt, often heard quoted the celebrated lines, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy?" You have heard this, I say; and as I believe you to be a person of sense, I shall take for granted that you believe it.

66

Why should we be so fond of saying, 'Impossible!' 'Incredible!' 'Improbable?' These are three empty words, yet how many a fine story have they marred! How can you tell whether what is impossible to you, may not be possible to

other people? Why should we shrink so sensitively from all belief in that which seems marvellous? Why are we determined to lay down laws, draw lines, fix boundaries, and then say, "every thing on this side the line I will believe, and nothing on the other side?" Does not the color on the cheek soften away so gradually, that none can say where it finally melts into the whiter temple and brow? Would it be improved by being fixed and defined? I once saw a little whitefaced child take a red peony leaf and playfully fix it to her cheek, the effect was not fair.

"Even so, Orris, my cousin, it is not well resolutely to define and bind with a hard line our belief on certain subjects: there must be some things which, if we cannot affirm them to be true, we cannot declare to be false; we see them as it were by twilight.

"It may sometimes have happened to you, Orris, to have walked out in the dusk and seen some white object, which at first you took to be a horse reposing in a field, but afterwards, changing your mind, you said was Goodman Hodge's Sunday shirt, laid out to bleach by his consort, and upon a nearer approach, you were almost sure that it was either a heap of stones, or a heap of turnips. Now, some things which to you have an unreal and illusive appearance may have truly been, and certainly happened to me. Mock not, then, at what I am going to tell you, but remember, that if I may be mistaken in thinking it ever took place, so may you in thinking it never did.

"What is the use of beating about the bush in this way? I will launch at once into my narrative like a man and a Briton.

"It was not more than a week since, Orris, that I was seated before my study fire, in the dusk of the evening. I had done a hard day's work, and was indulging in a reverie, while the white ashes which encrusted my burning logs, shaped themselves into cathedrals, alps, and avalanches, for my special pleasure and edification. I looked towards the window; the wind was rocking the black branches of the leafless trees, splashes of rain were breaking into spray in the corners of the casement, which rattled and creaked; while within doors the

wind lifted up my carpet into a succession of gusty waves. You cannot imagine what a windy noisy night it was-the dogs were barking in the yard-the ringers were clashing those bells in the church steeple-the branches were creaking; and altogether I felt so desolate and uncomfortable that, when Hannah came in to draw the curtain, and bring me my cap and railway wrapper, I was quite glad.

"Well,' I thought as I rose to take it, it is no use sitting mooning here by the fire, it will take half an hour to walk to the railway station, and I must be there by 9 o'clock.' Nothing looks more desolate than a country railway station in the midst of a great common like ours, and nothing is more dismal than to have to walk to it by night over marshy sward, where the moon sees her face fifty times in as many yards, in the round holes made by feet of cows and horses, and filled with rain water. This very lot, Orris, was mine; it was also my lot to be wet through, and to have my umbrella turned inside out, while the rain splashed into my eyes and ears, and the wind blew off my hat.

"The shrill whistle of the coming train was in my ears before I reached the station and ran up the steps, one, two, three--I seemed an unaccountably long time running up those steps, there were assuredly twenty of them, and was sure there used to be only three or four.

"And the door!-surely it could not be the right door; and moreover, it would not open. Nothing could exceed my perplexity and bewilderment; I could not, by any contrivance, get this door open, nor find my way into the place; at last, it being pitch dark, I began to feel round the wall with my hands. What a size it seemed! What with the wind and the rain, my fear of being late, and my perplexity, I got so stupid, that it must have been at least ten minutes before I found a door, and pushing it open—

"Why, this is a palace!' I exclaimed, and I am either dreaming or bewitched.'

"At last I opened one eye, and it rested on the following advertisement, which was printed on the wall :

"Take Notice-Luminous apparel being now so cheap, as to bring abundance of light within the reach of all classes, the